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TTC problems run deeper than chronic underfunding: Hume

The TTC still hasn’t learned how to put passengers first.

When the TTC took a small step out of the past recently and agreed to begin Sunday subway operations at 8 a.m. instead of 9 a.m., it was hailed as a major step forward. (Richard Lautens / Toronto Star file photo)

It’s sometime between 9 and 9:30 on a weekday morning and a small crowd waits for the streetcar at Broadview and Gerrard. After seven minutes or so, the westbound Carlton car (506) finally pulls up.

But, no, this one’s short-turning south on Broadview. Twenty or more people are forced to disembark to join the 15 or so already waiting at the stop. Another seven minutes later, a second streetcar finally appears, jammed to the rafters with snarling passengers reluctant to make room for another load of riders. They can either fight their way into the streetcar or wait patiently for a third one, which may or may not have room for them.

Just another day on the TTC, a transit system that talks endlessly about how great things will be on that great day when all its plans and hopes are realized, but which in the meantime can’t seem to handle the smallest details of its operations. If it’s not operational issues, it’s signal problems, mechanical failure and the like, which slow the network on a daily, even hourly, basis.

For all the talk about putting passengers first, the TTC remains rigidly focused on the means, not the ends. How many times has a streetcar stopped dead in the streets for three, four or five minutes because it’s ahead of schedule? It doesn’t matter that it’s filled with several dozen people all in a rush to get where they’re going.

Then there’s the 506, which must short-turn because someone staring at a screen at headquarters has decided that rush hour is over and these vehicles can be taken out of service.

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Meanwhile, up at the Broadview subway station, streetcars (504s and 505s) are lined up, blocking traffic, half a block north and south of Danforth Ave. The streetcar platforms only accommodate two and a half vehicles, and drivers must have their time out. Pretty soon there’s no room at the station; operators have no choice but to wait on the street until those ahead of them return from their break.

Even when the first streetcar leaves the station, it’s not uncommon to see the space sit empty for minutes while the driver of the second vehicle enjoys his or her time out.

Is it any wonder TTC users so often feel they are being punished for taking the better way?

The truth is that the TTC still hasn’t learned how to put passengers first. The organization is busy battling the self-appointed experts on city council who all think they know best. That, combined with a civic culture indifferent to transit, has left the TTC weak and demoralized.

When the commission took a small step out of the past recently and agreed to begin Sunday subway operations at 8 instead of 9 a.m., it was hailed as a major step forward.

Perhaps chronic underfunding is to blame, but there’s more to it than that. Besides, starving the TTC is as much a symptom as a cause. If we really believe the TTC is as crucial as we claim, why don’t we fund it adequately?

Instead, we throw money at a police force that’s overpaid, overindulged and weighed down by a massive sense of entitlement. No one could accuse the TTC of that. But then, people don’t fear the commission as they do the cops.

In the meantime, the city’s transit budget is on track to be chopped this year. The fact the TTC already ranks as the least subsidized transit system in North America means it has little room to manoeuvre. Getting around that will be even harder than getting around the city.

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